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My cousin, who turns 6 on Friday, is really into presidents. They did a unit for President’s Day, and he was inspired and now keeps a poster of all the presidents above his bed. Although he can only sort of read their names, he knows every single one by their portrait – he even has nicknames for some of them (“Maddy” – the name of their late cat – for James Madison, for example. This shared name is what makes James Madison his favorite). In fact, he can name any of the following details about multiple presidents:

full name

number in the list of presidents in chronological order

birthday

pets

whether or not he was “fascinated,” by which he means “assassinated” (accompanied by gun gesture pointing at own head)

Howard says that in high school, he knew an exchange student who was “fascinated” by civil war generals, but aside from maybe that kid and my 17-year-old cousin who had to memorize all the presidents for U.S. History last year, I don’t actually know anyone who knows more about the presidents than my almost-6-year-old cousin. Which means that this year, for his birthday, he is getting president stuff from EVERYONE.

From his parents:

Lego White House.

From Howard:

Not old enough for Mo Rocca's expose. Maybe next year.

From me:

They also have JFK and Lincoln. No Madison, though. JFK looks PRETTY RAD, as do the multiple paper doll books dedicated to Jackie alone. Michelle Obama has a bunch by herself too, obviously.

While I generally enjoy birthday parties (what’s not to love? Cake? LOVE that), I am just unprecedentedly excited for his birthday dinner on Friday night. I mean, it’s so cool! This little kid, really into presidents, encouraged by his family and getting all this stuff he’ll probably love! What I kind of want to do is get him to work with me on an adventure story where the presidents are characters, and they have to solve a mystery or fight a monster. Is he too young for this?